Trust and Courage
by 8ouji-Rui
Summary: At the end of the day, it's always her who understood him best. #nejitenmonth


a/n: hey guys! been a long time since I last write anything. I saw the nejiten month postson Tumblr and thought I'd give it a go myself. I've butchered the prompt tho...I don't know if it's allowed or not but I hope it is still okk. I wanted to join the celebration too lol.

The prompt for this piece is "let me hold your hand for a second."

enjoy!

"I don't want to."

"Oh, c'mon Neji!", Tenten whined pitifully, and looked disgusted with herself a few seconds after that. This, in turn, made Neji smirked at her antiques.

"You used to be all about destiny and stuffs like that! I just want to read your palm. Why does it seems as if I asked you to dump all the herring soba in front of Hiashi-sama?!", she asked again, trying to be more persuasive this time.

Neji just raise one of his eyebrow at her weird analogy. Dumping soba? Really? Not only that her analogy is bizarre, it is also very childish.

Which is why it is so _Tenten_ , and therefore extremely adorable. For him, at least.

It is not that he don't want to let her hold his hand… its just that he _can't._ Everyone thought that he hates physical intimacies (which includes touches), and that point is true. However, he did not mind them as much if Tenten is the one giving it. In fact, he might have liked it and a teeny bit been expecting more of it lately. Like when they practiced, he found herself that when he accidentally touched her, he would sometimes be caught in a trance….and lose focus. Which is so embarrassing, not to mention quite dangerous. But then he just looked at her and realized how strong she had become, and the way her subtle beauty have also grown with her and although she has matured way more than the girls in their batch, her eyes still shine the same way as it was the first time they met together, when they were first introduced as a team. That time, when he was still a very stubborn and troubled child, full of hate and not realizing that it was not the main branch who caged him, it was he himself who stands in the way of his own happiness. But then she helped him out of that cage, and instead -dare he say it- become his happiness.

In short, 21 year-old Hyuuga Neji, the famed prodigy of the Hyuuga clan, is in love.

He cannot give her his hand, because he's afraid that he cannot control his composure again if she touch him more than five seconds. He is afraid if she founds out, and distances herself from him. He is also creeped out by the way his mind had run loose on several occasions and conjured… _inappropriate_ things. Things that mostly include his team-mate of almost 10 years and him, doing _immoral_ things in _indecent_ positions.Like that one time when he managed to tra—

"GOT IT!", Tenten shouted as she seized his right hand and quickly holds his wrist in a death grip. She quickly traced the lines in his right hand.

Meanwhile, Neji is entranced. He savors the feel of her fingers, softly brushing against his palm. He looked at her and smiled faintly at how her nose crunched up a little as she concentrate, and how the death grip on his wrist has turned into a cradle, now that she is sure he is not going to pull back. She is utterly and positively adorable….and he hopes that he is the only one who realized that.

"It looks like you will be in a long-term relationship, Neji. But I kinda expect that from you.", Tenten said as she looked up at him and smiled impishly. However, there is something incorrigible in her eyes. He tried to categorize it as some kind of disappointment of some sort….but it also looks like hope.

And then he realized that she is still holding his hand.

Suddenly, he disregard all his fears. He do not think of the possibilitiy of her being creeped up by his sudden attraction towards his female teammate. He completely throw away his fear of her pulling away from him if she knew about it. Because it'sTenten,and he knew her best than any other person alive. She is the one who always support him, and she also understood him best, even better than Hinata. She would definitely understand him, and even if things got awkward, he trust her enough to always be there for him, like he always would for her.

So he take that leap of courage, and turns his palm down before slipping his fingers between hers.

"Yeah, I suppose I would.", He finally said to her, and in her eyes he sees the hope - _definitely hope_ \- finally blooms and her eyes sparkle even more than before. If anything, her smiles grows and he could see a faint blush rising on her cheeks. He is quite sure that his own face must be sporting the same color.

 _We're definitely in it for the long run._


End file.
